Chris Huhne... going soon?
Discussion
Indeed. The application of the Perverting Laws is to everybody. Rich, famous, poor, unknown. There are plenty of press stories around at any particular time.
When 3 members of the Lefton family conspired to pervert the course of justice to avoid speeding tickets, they were jailed. Their legal advisor was tried and acquitted. When Joe Bloggsdid the same he was jailed. When Chirs Huhne and his ex did it they were jailed.
And the mechanism for the sentencing is very straightforward. You can pervert the course of justice in relation to any crime (or even in the absence of a crime), the sentences for which span everything from an absolute discharge to life imprisonment. So, guess what? For Perverting the Course of Justice, the sentence can also vary from nothing, to life imprisonment.
It's accepted that one function of sentencing is deterrent. That's uncontroversial.
What is also very easy to understand, is that if the punishment for Perverting was the same or similar to that for the offence you're trying to avoid, there would be no deterrent to 'trying it on'. What would you have to lose?
So in order to deter people from trying it on, the likely sentence for Perverting is considerably higher than that for the offence in which you would be trying to avoid. If there was no crime other than the perverting itself (such as helping a friend conceal evidence of a crime in which you had no chargeable involvement), then again, the sentence needs to be sufficiently harsh to deter others from doing the same thing.
The justice system is reliant on peoples' word when they give evidence or choose how to act in circumstances surrounding offences. Honesty is expected, required- not simply wished for. If you are dishonest and the intended effect of this dishonesty is to avoid the justice system being able to function properly, you should expect the system to come down hard on you.
When 3 members of the Lefton family conspired to pervert the course of justice to avoid speeding tickets, they were jailed. Their legal advisor was tried and acquitted. When Joe Bloggsdid the same he was jailed. When Chirs Huhne and his ex did it they were jailed.
And the mechanism for the sentencing is very straightforward. You can pervert the course of justice in relation to any crime (or even in the absence of a crime), the sentences for which span everything from an absolute discharge to life imprisonment. So, guess what? For Perverting the Course of Justice, the sentence can also vary from nothing, to life imprisonment.
It's accepted that one function of sentencing is deterrent. That's uncontroversial.
What is also very easy to understand, is that if the punishment for Perverting was the same or similar to that for the offence you're trying to avoid, there would be no deterrent to 'trying it on'. What would you have to lose?
So in order to deter people from trying it on, the likely sentence for Perverting is considerably higher than that for the offence in which you would be trying to avoid. If there was no crime other than the perverting itself (such as helping a friend conceal evidence of a crime in which you had no chargeable involvement), then again, the sentence needs to be sufficiently harsh to deter others from doing the same thing.
The justice system is reliant on peoples' word when they give evidence or choose how to act in circumstances surrounding offences. Honesty is expected, required- not simply wished for. If you are dishonest and the intended effect of this dishonesty is to avoid the justice system being able to function properly, you should expect the system to come down hard on you.
anonymous said:
[redacted]
You're a Mod? You have some ability to control people's actions on here?Thought not.
STFU yourself, troll. This is a public form, if you want to have a personal chat with 10pS go PM.
If you don't understand that, it's no wonder you can't cope with PtCoJ issues.
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